A slice of the cake called life
by superalicat
Summary: Happy birthday, Yui! Dedicated to the ditziest and greatest guitarist who ever existed, here's a special fic about her 18th birthday. This one takes place after Season 2, Episode 25, actually set after Episode 21, referencing HTT's final school festival. Enjoy!


Title: A slice of the cake called life

Characters: Yui, Ritsu, Azusa, Mugi, Mio, Ui, Jun, Nodoka, Sawako

Pairings: A little bit of Azusa/Yui

"Name: Yui Hirasawa. Age: Eighteen. In the early morning of November 27th, Mr. and Mrs. Hirasawa came into the delivery room. They hadn't been there for very long when Mrs. Hirasawa got a strong urge to have some cake right there and then, even though she was giving birth. Her husband gave her a slice, and just as she raised the first forkful to her mouth, her baby was born. The first thing that baby Yui smelled was the delicious aroma of sweet, sugary cake-"

"Ritsu, what _exactly_ are you doing?" Mio demanded. Both of them were standing in the hallway with a little handheld video camera between them, shooting video footage of Yui talking to Sawa-chan. However, as Ritsu was prone to do, she started adding her own dialogue.

"I'm giving a little background information," Ritsu explained. "It'll be good for the documentary."

"Why are we making a documentary again? We've got finals to study for!"

"Perfect, this is just perfect!" said a voice behind Ritsu and Mio. They whirled around to see Mugi standing there, holding her own video camera. She probably hadn't gotten over her director-like part when they put on "Romeo and Juliet" not too long ago.

"Mugi, you can turn that off," Ritsu told her. She did and came over to stand next to them. In answer to Mio's question, she said, "We're making a documentary for Yui's 18th birthday as a present. It's only a few days away, you know. So do you still think it's not as important as studying?"

Mio shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, I guess we can lay off the studying for Yui's birthday."

"Yay!" chorused Ritsu and Mugi. Just then, Yui came over to them.

"What are you guys cheering about?" she asked, and Ritsu and Mugi hastily hid their cameras behind their backs.

"We've decided to take the week off from studying," answered Ritsu, before Mio could say anything. The dark-haired girl made a pained expression but kept quiet.

"Really! Awesome!" They all headed up to the club room, Mugi and Ritsu still hiding the video cameras. As they all put their bags down and Mugi went to make tea, Mio got up and followed her.

"Where did you get the video camera?" Mio asked Mugi quietly. Ritsu and Yui were laughing to one another about how Yui's bangs had finally grown back after she accidentally cut them too short before they took their graduation album photos.

"Sawa-chan lent it to me," Mugi answered.

"Really? She lent one to us, too." Mio sat down and wondered just how many spare video cameras their teacher had.

Over the next couple of days, the documentary filming continued, and no matter how hard Mio tried to stop her, Ritsu always added in funny voice-overs. But one day before Yui's birthday, they hit a roadblock. It had only been Mio, Mugi, and Ritsu working on filming and editing the documentary, since they had decided to let Azusa give Yui her own present. But since they weren't exactly the stealthiest girls, Azusa found out.

As she reached the door to the music room, Azusa noticed Mugi standing outside, aiming a video camera at the window and clearly taking a video of Yui laughing and eating cake. "Mugi-senpai, what are you doing?" Azusa asked. Mugi jumped in surprise and stopped filming.

"Oh, Azusa-chan, you're here. You see, we, um, we're filming a documentary for Yui's eighteenth birthday."

Azusa was still suspicious. "Senpai, are you still into this kind of stuff because we just shot our new recruitment video?" She recalled all the footage Jun and Ui had taken of the Light Music Club and the interviews they had conducted with the students.

"Yes. Promise you won't tell Yui, okay? It's supposed to be a surprise; we're going to be showing it to her tomorrow."

Azusa sighed. "Okay, I won't tell."

"Azusa-chan, what were you going to give Yui for a present?"

Now it was Azusa's turn to be surprised. She hadn't really given it a lot of thought. "Well, um, I'd like to give her something special. Something she knows is from me. If it was me, I think I'd want a homemade cake or something like that, but since Yui-senpai eats cake every day, I don't think it would be that special. Maybe it would be nice to fix her guitar up a little, but knowing Yui-senpai, she'd probably forget about it the next time it needed fixing." Azusa smiled, remembering how Yui had had no idea about how to care of the guitar. "I'm not really sure what I should give her, but I'm sure it would be something with feeling. Something that would always make her happy, something that she would cherish for years and years." Suddenly, Azusa noticed that Mugi was holding the video camera again and seemed to be recording what Azusa was saying. "Wait, Mugi-senpai, you're not recording that, are you?!"

The next day was Yui's birthday. Sawa-chan and everyone in her class wished her a happy birthday and during lunch, Mugi gave her a super-expensive cake she'd had flown in the night before. When Yui wasn't looking, Mugi handed Ritsu and Mio a DVD case, which contained the documentary. Mugi had edited all of the footage and the interviews the previous night and put them all together to make the completed documentary. Ritsu nodded and took it from her. After school, she'd set up a laptop in the club room so that they could all show the video to Yui.

Even if it was Yui's birthday, that didn't mean she was exempt from cleaning duties. This gave Mugi, Ritsu, and Mio a chance to properly set up the room. Azusa came in and helped them decorate the walls with streamers and balloons. As soon as they finished, Ritsu remembered something. "You know, since we interviewed Jun and Ui-chan and Nodoka, we should probably invite them here to watch the video too, right?"

"You just now remembered this?" Mio asked, turning the laptop around so that it faced Yui's seat. "Yui's going to be back any time now."

"We should go find them, then," suggested Azusa. "I can get Jun and Ui and you can get Nodoka."

"All right!" everyone else agreed, and all left the room. A couple of minutes later, the door opened again. This time, it was Yui.

"Guys?" she asked the empty room. "Where are you?" She could see that the room was decorated and set up as if they were having a party. Yui smiled because she knew it was for her. Then her eyes fell on the laptop sitting in front of her seat. She sat down and pressed the space bar, instantly starting the video.

The beginning of the documentary was mostly a bunch of short clips of Yui around the school. Surprisingly, some of them were ones from her first and second years. Some of these had been obtained from some of Mugi's hidden cameras around the school. Others had been taken by Sawako. There were even clips taken from Student Council videos of school festivals, including footage from their most recent live performance when everyone talked about Yui.

And then there were the interviews. The first one was Ui's, talking about how her sister had grown up over the years. Pictures flashed across the screen of Yui as a kid and a middle schooler (these had been sent to Mugi by Ui). After Ui's interview was Jun's, talking about how laid-back Yui was but how good she was at guitar. Mio's interview, which was after Jun's, focused on how she'd first met Yui and what she'd thought Yui's personality was like at first. Mugi's interview was a long explanation of all of Yui's likes and dislikes, and even mentioned how much Yui cared for Giita, her guitar. Ritsu talked about how Yui saved the Light Music Club by joining it and about her music. Nodoka told about Yui's determination to study and pass all of her exams, and explained that even though Yui wasn't the smartest, she always tried her hardest and gave it her all, and somehow managed to always do well at everything she tried. During everyone's interviews, a slideshow of pictures of Yui with the Light Music Club and all of the interviewees.

The video abruptly cut to Azusa standing outside of the club room. She was saying, "I'd like to give her something special. Something she knows is from me. If it was me, I think I'd want a homemade cake or something like that, but since Yui-senpai eats cake every day, I don't think it would be that special. Maybe it would be nice to fix her guitar up a little, but knowing Yui-senpai, she'd probably forget about it the next time it needed fixing." Her voice went to voice-over and pictures of Yui and Azusa flashed across the screen. In many of them, Yui was holding on tight to Azusa, and Azusa had an uncomfortable look on her face in all of them. "I'm not really sure what I should give her, but I'm sure it would be something with feeling. Something that would always make her happy, something that she would cherish for years and years." The video of Azusa was back, and she was smiling a little. The image changed again, of Yui feeding Azusa a piece of cake. In this one, at least, Azusa looked happy.

Yui turned around in her seat and realized that the others were standing there, holding a cake with eighteen candles stuck in it. They were all watching her. Yui wasn't sure how long they'd been there, but she knew that they had been keeping quiet so she could watch the documentary.

"Well?" Ritsu asked. "Do you like it?"

"Ricchan!" Yui shot out of her seat and gave the other girl a big hug. "I love it!" She went around hugging everyone, even a startled-looking Jun. The last person she came to was Azusa, who was looking a bit embarrassed.

"Yui-senpai, what do you think I should give you for your birthday?" Azusa asked.

"Azu-nyan!" Suddenly Yui was hugging Azusa tighter than she'd hugged the others, even Ui. "You're enough of a present for me. Just having you here's a present!"

"This is all very touching," Sawako said from behind them. She swiped a bit of icing off the side of the cake and sucked it off her finger. "But where's _my_ interview? I can't believe you overlooked me!"


End file.
